Under a Blood Red Sky
by Mia-Zeklos
Summary: UNIT hosts a party and the Torchwood team is required to go. As usual, aliens get in the way.


**Author's Notes: It's a combination of two different prompts of tumblr. I hope you enjoy it!**

New Year's Eve was, for some reason, a pretty good time for alien hunting. Jack had never been able to explain it to himself – why did any alien race decide to come over exactly when the Earth was sending out noisy, flashy things up in the sky? As far as he knew, there were few other species out there that treated the coming of a new year the way humans did and he himself had been quite intimidated when he'd first seen Earth up close on New Year's Eve.

Of course, humanity in this time period had very little knowledge of that. As did UNIT, which was the more surprising bit – didn't they deal with the same thing that Torchwood got on a daily basis? Surely they were supposed to know that the entire team was busy with at least three different cases?

Apparently they weren't aware of anything of the sort, Jack thought huffily as he buttoned up his shirt. It was ridiculous – they couldn't refuse because a large chunk of their funding depended on what UNIT would say about them next time they met the big boss, and as long as they were dependent on them, they would have to play by their rules. Even if said rules included attending a New Year's party.

"Ianto, are you ready?" The Captain shouted and got an affirmative grunt from the bathroom. Ianto hadn't done much to prepare himself for the evening – actually, he'd just fixed his slightly rumpled suit and decided that it would do, and then went to fix his hair as well. Jack and Gwen, on the other hand, had had to go through the procedure of dressing up for the occasion. As much as Ianto had tried to play it off his usual attire as a benefit, though, Jack wasn't sure that wearing a three-piece suit on a daily basis could pay off, no matter the situation.

"I rented a limo," the younger man said as he came out in the living room of his flat once more. "We're going to that party in style."

"You've got us a limo?" Jack asked. He didn't try to hide his scepticism, even though he was thrilled at the opportunity of getting his hands on all the luxuries such a car would offer. Ianto nodded. "And a driver with it, too, I suppose. Isn't it a little excessive?"

"Not for a UNIT party," Ianto shrugged. "And plus, the Queen is paying for it, not you."

"How did you even list it in the expenses?" Jack wondered. Ianto handled all of those documents – it was supposedly part of his job, but Jack suspected that it had something to do with the fact that this meant that Ianto could give himself a raise without even asking about it. He'd probably given Gwen one, too; she hadn't protested the slightest bit when she'd been told with no prior warning that she'd have to buy and evening gown, and that definitely suggested some wealth added through Ianto's questionable requests to Her Majesty.

"As transport," Ianto grinned and fixed his tie one last time. "Are you done already? It's waiting for us outside."

"But of course, Mr Jones," Jack beamed in response and took a last look at himself in the mirror. He'd donned a tux he hadn't worn in ages – he'd never had the opportunity and it wasn't exactly a comfortable everyday attire – and it had met even Ianto's impossible standards, so he was quite confident that it'd be one of the good things to happen to him tonight.

 **o.O.o**

The party was in full swing by the time the three of them arrived. Gwen and Ianto looked around the large hall and Jack decided to let them have their moment of awe before they had to meet the UNIT staff. Even he had to admit that the place was impressive, and he'd been here before, and many times, too – UNIT was one of the few institutions that got to be aware of his situation regarding immortality.

"Let's move on," he said after a minute or two of wandering about the edge of the hall. Gwen turned around to frown at him.

"Come on, Jack," she whined. "How often do we get to see places like that? Most of the time it's just explosions and aliens that can't wait to kill us. Can't we have an evening off?"

"That's not an evening off," Jack stressed. He didn't want them to let their guard down and the feeling increased even more when he realised that Ianto wasn't really listening to him. "And you too, Ianto," he added, raising his voice slightly. "You're supposed to be the accountant here, so you'll have to talk to all the officials."

"Of course," Ianto nodded dutifully and then his expression morphed into the one that Gwen was currently sporting. "But maybe just a few dances first."

"Just a few," Jack agreed reluctantly.

One hour later, minutes before midnight, the next wave of aliens came.

 **o.O.o**

It turned out that no, UNIT wasn't prepared to deal with aliens the same way that Torchwood was. They hadn't left their weapons at home even during the festivities, and it was just as well – UNIT had a disastrously small percentage of field agent and the majority of their employees preferred to just run around and scream about the incoming certain death rather than help. It took hours and then days before the situation was completely contained.

And yet, something good came out of it, as Gwen had pointed out – UNIT was grateful enough to let them ask for anything they wanted and Ianto had managed to coax a major raise in their budget from them. Jack didn't want to think about what was happening in Cardiff while they tried to deal with everything going on with London, but it couldn't be that bad – if it hadn't made the news, then it wasn't too catastrophic.

"Y'know, New Year's sort of loses its punch when you stay up until 2 AM every night anyway," Ianto grumbled as they got back in their limo. At least they could go back home in style too.

"True," Jack conceded. "Still, it isn't that bad, is it? We still got a few dances and a party."

The only thing that answered him was a collective groan.


End file.
